MANILA, Philippines – Between 775,000 and 800,000 US households bought Manny Pacquiao’s rematch with Timothy Bradley last April 13, sports website SI.com reported Wednesday.
SI.com’s Chris Mannix, citing sources familiar with the figures, pointed out the improvement in Pacquiao’s pay-per-view performance against Bradley compared to his last fight against Brandon Rios.
The Rios fight, which was staged in Macau last November, generated a mediocre 475,000 PPV buys. This has been attributed to the significant time difference between the US and Asia.
Mannix, however, noted how Pacquiao’s PPV numbers have declined recently. According to the same report, the Filipino icon has averaged 1.1 million PPV buys per fights in the seven bouts before the first Bradley fight in June 2012.
Pacquiao lost to Bradley then in a controversial fight that was bought by 890,000 US households. But the fighting congressman got back at Bradley in the rematch, winning a unanimous decision.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach previously blamed his ward’s recent poor PPV showing on his inability to score knockouts lately. The last time Pacquiao registered a knockout was in 2009 when he stopped Miguel Cotto in 12 rounds.